The role of international organizations are helping to set the international agenda, mediating political bargaining, providing place for political initiatives and acting as catalysts for coalition- formation. International organizations also define the salient issues and decide which issues can be grouped together, thus help governmental priority determination or other governmental arrangements.

^The Penguin Dictionary of International Relations divides modern international organizations into two "basic types, the 'public' variety known as intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and the 'private' variety, the international non-governmental organization (INGOs)." (Evans, Graham, and Richard Newnham. Penguin Dictionary of International Relations. Penguin, 1998, p. 270.)